A study assessed factors that may contribute to early mortality in patients with multiple myeloma (MM).
“Despite significant improvements in multiple myeloma (MM) treatment modalities, patient mortality early in the course of disease has been identified as a persistent phenomenon with variable reported rates and causes. Trends in early mortality over time have not been clearly defined,” the researchers explained.
They queried the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database to gather data on patients with MM from 1975 to 2015. Multivariate analysis was implemented to determine the connection between available sociodemographic factors and all-cause and MM-specific early mortality, defined as death within six months after MM diagnosis. Joinpoint regression analysis was used to evaluate trends in early mortality.
Final analysis included 90,975 MM cases, with an early mortality rate of 21%. The median age was 68 years in the overall cohort, and 75 years in the early mortality cohort. MM was the most common cause of death among the early mortality group, followed by cardiovascular events, infections, and renal failure. Factors associated with all-cause and MM-specific mortality were male sex, “other” race/ethnicity, and older age, as well as West, Midwest, and South regions (reference Northeast). Upon joinpoint regression analysis, 1 joinpoint was observed for all-cause six-month mortality (2006-2015), and 2 joinpoints for MM-specific six-month mortality (1975-1987 and 2003-2015).
The study was published in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma, & Leukemia.
